Perth>Melbourne

Perth. They say Perth is the most remote western city in the world. It's on the west coast of Australia, a million miles from everywhere. I've never had any time off here, so I've never ventured out of the city center, but apparently the beaches are amazing and never get crowded. I wish they could say the same about the rock venues. Our show was at smallish nightclub that was more set up for disco nights than rock shows. The stage was so tiny that I literally had to set up ON stage. Like I could put my feet up on Mickey's amp if I wanted. It was actually an amazing spot to sit except for feeling like a completely conspicuous douche up there where everyone could see me. The whole day was a nightmare trying to get everything happening. Plus there's a smaller club that's attached where some shitty scream-o bands were playing, so we were battling their noise all day. The gig itself was packed & sweaty. The band played a great set, marred again by gear troubles for Mickey. Poor Mickey, between playing in Ween and being a Philly sports fan, I now know what he means when he tells me "welcome to the losing team". Still, he knows how to dig his heels in and overcome. Here's a bunch of shots from the show. I was so drowned in the lights that most of them came out bad, but you get the idea.

To give you an idea how close I was, these were taken with no zoom...

I had to lean way back for this one...
Mickey playing inside the sun...
Dave rocks it...

The Mollusk...

The end of You Fucked Up...

Good night Perth...

Yesterday we flew to Melbourne where we had a night off. A bunch of us went to an Italian place called Pelligrini's that was one of the coolest restaurants I've been to. It's a hole-in-the-wall family style place. You walk in and there's a long bar on each side running the length of the place. It was full when we arrived so they sat us at a long table that was literally IN the kitchen. They don't really have a menu, they just ask you what they want and make it for you. They offer you seconds or to try different stuff and you just agree on what to pay (we paid $20 each). The food was good but not amazing (the pasta's pre-cooked so it wasn't as al dente as I'd like). It reminded me of Papa Frank's back in Vermont. The experience was great though. The owner & staff/family basically hang out and talk & serve you. It's more like being in someone's home than a restaurant. We ended up sharing our table with some nice folks and the whole thing was just a great experience.


We're in Melbourne for 3 more nights which is a nice break from all the flying. We have 2 shows in town and then a festival a couple hours away. I'm going to try and see the Nick Cave exhibit in town, which will likely lead to me gushing about how cool that guy is.